Federal and State Prisons to Resume Visiting By Sean R. Francis, MS
Since March almost all state and federal correctional institutions, as well as county jails, have suspended in person visitation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/03/11/california-prisons-suspend-visiting-indefinitely-over-coronavirus-scares/ This has resulted in additional stress on inmates who were forced to endure pandemic related lock downs and on the families of inmates who lived in fear daily about the fate of their incarcerated loved ones.
However, with COVID-19 numbers falling and the vast efforts our nations correctional institutions have made to combat this virus, the time of indefinite visitation suspension is finally coming to an end. The Federal Bureau of Prisons has announced that in person visitation will resume on October 3, 2020 for all of their 122 institutions. In New York visitation at the states 52 prisons resumed in August. Many states are following suit.
Maintaining community and family ties has been recognized as one of the best ways an offender can rehabilitate and not return to prison. https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2014/apr/15/lowering-recidivism-through-family-communication/ Considering that 95 percent of all inmates will return to the community someday the public has a vested interest in prisoners maintaining family and community ties. With no end to the COVID nightmare in sight and concerns about a resurgence in this virus as the fall and winter approach we must now ask the question, should all correctional institutions be prepared for video visitation to ensure that offenders who have family and community ties can maintain them? Naturally, if the number of positive COVID cases climbs we will once again see in person visitation halted once again.
These have been challenging times for our nations inmates and the staff who work in these prisons every day. Yet, the indefinite suspension of visitation, one of the few things that is proven to halt recidivism, is not the best course of action. This is not the fault of the institutions, they had no idea this was coming and were as prepared as the rest of us, which is to say not at all. But we have been living with this for months and will likely be dealing with this for years to come. In light of COVID-19 I sincerely hope that all correctional institutions obtain the technology to conduct video visits so that we can continue to strengthen inmates ties to their families and communities, thus lowering recidivism.
